Wednesday, January 15, 2014

So, how many times have I babbled on and on trying to find the perfect words to describe how I feel when I create? How I have this comforting NEED to transform Lee DeWyze’s music & lyrics into pictures…? Lots, right? Well guess what?

As I am sure most of you do, when I get up and let the dog out first thing in the morning, I lay on the sofa and check all my phone statuses, etc like it was the morning paper. This morning I was scrolling through Pinterest and found the most PERFECT quote I have ever read in my life! It is EXACTLY the words I have searched so hard for to get across to you. Well… those lost words are This… it is sheer perfection:

Now, don’t get all weird on me… this is strictly from a creative standpoint. So settle down. It just explains exactly how I feel… sometimes you are just meant to do something and meant to meet people. Everyone you meet has something to teach you. And it isn’t JUST Lee, although yes, I am basing this almost entirely on the fact that any inspiration or need to create I have ever had, has been dormant until I discovered his music… But also it opened the doors to meeting other inspirational people in my life… Like Mare- who let’s me run my ideas by her as they come to me. The amount of inspired enthusiasm I get in her feedback is JUST as important as what Lee does for me…. Or this whole thing brought my sister and I close together…And everyone else I met via Lee’s music and Twitter…It’s a giant circle… seriously. Mark is even a part of it. I have an amazing husband that sits there everyday watching me be inspired by someone, listening to only Lee in the car and throughout it all- being encouraging…and if I haven’t met Mark-I’d never know Brittany- who is the one that told me about Lee’s twitter account and got me all set up AND was the subject of my VERY first Lee inspired painting; “Flower Child” … it has opened all kinds of doors… I am the most creative and inspired right now than I have ever been in my life… and ultimately… it falls back on Music… Lee’s Music… Can you imagine when the rest of the world catches on to his amazingness? The world will be one happy place. All things happen for a reason and I truly believe that.

Now, you are asking about the paintings? I have not given up… Just have not had the time to get everything out and paint…but I will, soon. I have though been keeping up with my New Year’s resolution of a sketch a day for 2014, as I can do that anywhere. And I have! Here are a few of those to hold you over….

***I HAVE however, created a sketch for Lee’s new song “Again” and I am pretty excited about this painting! I’ll probably start that as soon as “Stay Away” is finished. Stay tuned………………….

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and New Year and most importantly staying warm!

On New Year’s Day, I went out to buy a new sketch book. An Actual, good sized sketchbook…meant for sketching. Before I was using a lined writing journal…. I am pretty excited about it….oh, and the most exciting feature? The outside cover is plain white painting canvas…so I can paintit!

With the New Year, came all the snow and horrible weather, so I got to break in my book right away! **just to set some of your minds at ease, I have not abandoned the “Stay Away” painting… it’s just that we have yet to get the house totally back to normal from Christmas so all my painting stuff is away. Sketching is quick, easy and can be done anywhere… the paints I have to set up, clean brushes, etc…

I was thinking about my art & a conversation I had with a good friend that is an established artist and apparently it takes 10,000 hours to master your craft. I have also been thinking about resolutions and how I have never in my life saw one through; I’m sure most of you can relate to that. This year however, I decided that I am going to try to commit to a sketch a day for the entire year. Trust me; I ALWAYS have stuff on my mind… so this should be easy, right? My first few sketches are actually based on old, pre-Idol Lee Songs…. Just certain lyrics that have always spoke to me or have a special place in my heart. There are visuals that I have had in my mind for paintings in the past that never made it to canvas.

This sketching resolution is the perfect outlet for those images. So, I’m sure you are wondering, since I have already been asked…”you are going to have 365 sketches of Lee DeWyze lyrics??? No. …. Maybe just 300 or so… haha. Honestly, a lot of them will be lyrically inspired, I won’t lie... but I am going to include things that I see that may just look interesting to meor things that I hold close to my heart. Have no worries, I have been spending no more than an hour a day on these pages, so I will continue to work on my paintings… I still have several in the works, so 2014 will be a busy year! If you’d like to follow the sketch a day for a year journey, you can do that on instagram under JENNMHARDING also, I am not making any promises, but 365 pages is a lot… so I am making a list of things I can think of now. If you have a specific line or something Lee related you’d like me to do… send it my way and I’ll put it on the list to maybe do in the future!

On the status of my paintings for the “Frames” songs, I have a some work left on “Stay Away” … My plan was to go right into “Breathing In”, HOWEVER, I have come up with an idea for Lee’s new song “Again” and will be going right into that because I’m pretty excited about this one. …. Stay tuned! And do not forget to go tohttp://leedewyzeofficial.com/ to check in and see what Lee is working on!